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Webber leads Red Bull to top of F1 practice speed chart in Japan

Mark Webber was quickest in practice on Friday in Japan. Qualifying for the F1 race is Saturday. Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

Mark Webber was fastest for Red Bull at a hot and sunny Suzuka on Friday as the Japanese track once again showed what a tough challenge it is for the Formula One drivers.

Michael Schumacher and Paul Di Resta both hit the tire wall at Spoon corner in the afternoon session after dropping their right-side wheels on the dirt under braking, while several other drivers had off-track moments as they pushed their cars to the limit.

Webber, in contrast, had an uneventful day on his way to topping the times.

“It went pretty well for us,” Webber said. “It's a great circuit for us to get a nice, clean rhythm on in terms of dry weather. First time in a while that we've gotten a full [dry] weekend, potentially.

“I'm very happy with that. We executed most of the runs that we wanted to do plan-wise, and there's plenty to go through. It's a very challenging venue in terms of balance. We've got a bit of work to do.

“The car ran very well and reliably; we did a test on both tires; it was a normal Friday. We seem to be pretty strong at the moment. It's Friday, and as we've seen it's very up and down this year—day-to-day it can change. Today we had a smooth day, and we look to execute one tomorrow.”

Lewis Hamilton was just 0.2 second behind Webber as McLaren again looked fast. Teammate Jenson Button topped the morning session.

“As always, we'll be fine-tuning the car tonight ahead of tomorrow's sessions,” said Hamilton. “But it looks very close between ourselves and Red Bull. I feel comfortable with our car—it's the best that it's ever been around here—and I think I could have matched Mark's fastest time with an optimal lap. It's going to be very close in qualifying [Saturday].”

Sebastian Vettel backed up Webber's performance in third, while Nico Hulkenberg underlined Force India's good recent form in fourth at a track where the team expected to struggle.

“Today was a little bit of a surprise, to be honest,” Hulkenberg said. “On low fuel, we really looked competitive today. The high fuel runs, I think we have some more work to do.

“If you look just at the time sheet, it looks good. But as I said, the high fuel runs didn't look as good in relation to the low fuel. Maybe we can improve there a little bit. It's a good starting point, but our target as usual is to get points on Sunday.”

Fernando Alonso was fifth for Ferrari, ahead of Romain Grosjean, Button, Bruno Senna, Felipe Massa and Schumacher, the last named setting his time before his spectacular accident, from which he escaped unharmed.

Kimi Räikkönen struggled with a KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) problem in the second practice session, and that kept him off the track during much of the session. He finished in 14th place. Meanwhile, his Lotus team has once again decided to abandon its double DRS system, nicknamed the 'Device,' which it has been testing on Fridays for some months.